PPL (NYSE:PPL) Price Target Lowered to $42.00 at Morgan Stanley

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price target dropped by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $43.00 to $42.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 21.07% from the stock’s previous close.

PPL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Evercore set a $42.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research report on Monday. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.33.

PPL Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE PPL traded down $0.51 during trading on Friday, hitting $34.69. 1,571,041 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,752,823. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $35.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.77. PPL has a 1 year low of $33.17 and a 1 year high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.47% and a return on equity of 9.33%. PPL’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that PPL will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total transaction of $929,530.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. This trade represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total transaction of $772,645.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 561,482 shares in the company, valued at $12,397,522.56. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GSA Capital Partners LLP raised its position in shares of PPL by 569.8% during the 2nd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 35,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,295,000 after acquiring an additional 30,313 shares in the last quarter. Chancellor Financial Group WB LP bought a new stake in PPL during the second quarter valued at $1,286,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in PPL by 9.3% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,837,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $66,786,000 after purchasing an additional 157,005 shares during the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL during the second quarter worth $2,594,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Advisors MI lifted its position in shares of PPL by 256.5% in the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 35,277 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,348,000 after buying an additional 25,382 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

About PPL

PPL Corporation is an energy company that owns and operates electric transmission and distribution infrastructure and provides related customer services. The company’s core business centers on delivering electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers through regulated utility operations, maintaining grid reliability, responding to outages and managing customer billing and account services.

PPL’s activities include construction and maintenance of distribution and transmission lines, meter and grid management, and programs to support energy efficiency and the interconnection of distributed resources.